This looks like a terrific amount of hard work and the quality is on the screen!
Nice job!
This is a nice addition to my video collection which includes The Godfather 1901-1959: The Complete Epic on VHS, The Godfather DVD Collection and the recent addition from eBay: The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 on Laserdisc (which I was going to digitize until I discovered your version).
I am currently watching Disk 1, and I have a question:
Was your intention to add all deleted scenes into your version?
If my recollection is correct, the only version of the the extended releases I ever saw was the home video release of The Godfather 1901-1959: The Complete Epic in the 80s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather_Saga http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.com/epic/ ). In that version, Tom Hagen is having dinner with the movie producer Woltz and is thrown out and as he is leaving he sees the young acting protegee on the upstairs balcony.
The next scene is Hagen back in New York with Vito discussing the ways to get at Woltz, including his exposure for having a sexual relationship with his underage protege. Then we see Woltz in bed the next morning awakening with the horse's head.
This New York discussion scene is missing from your version.
It appears that this might be the same meeting where Vito, Sonny and Tom discuss Sollozzo's proposal for drug dealing, which is next in your version (not so, see my UPDATE below).
Was this a creative deletion on your part? Are there others? Thanks again!
UPDATE: I see from rereading your first post, that you changed your mind about including any footage from VHS sources (chosing better quality Laserdisc sources instead), hence extra scenes in the EPIC that are not included in the TRILOGY would not be included in your version.
Another website post indicates that this scene concludes with Vito telling Tom to send Luca Brasi to Hollywood to take care of Woltz; which makes more sense in dealing with the beheading of the racehorse.
NOTE: Using Handbrake to convert to H.264 with AAC stereo audio in AppleTV format slims this project down to 6.83Gigs.
LAST QUESTION (for now!): I assume that the advantage of using the Collector's Edition on laserdisc, instead of the DVD versions, is the aspect ratio of 1.33 to 1; is that correct? So, does that mean you reduced the aspect ratio of the deleted scenes from The DVD Collection? And, if so, how did you achieve that result with your tools?